Foreclosures and Attorney - Florida

Started by LaineS • 12 replies • 1451 views

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LaineS (Florida)
Posts: 10

Posted:

Our community (in Florida)has had a number of foreclosures over the last 9 months. Although none of the homes foreclosed owe any dues, our attorney has advised us that he needs to "prepare the necessary paperwork" at the tune of $300-$400 each. My question is, do we even need to do any paperwork at all?

Also, what if the home being foreclosed did owe dues at the time of foreclosure? Would we have to do any "legal paperwork" then? It seems silly to pay approx $400 to collect $150 in dues (which I am under the impression we may never recoup).

Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Laine S.

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Laine,
You said that none of the homes owed dues but then you followed it with silly to pay $400.00 to collect $150. Did they owe and dues? If they did not, it sounds like your attorney is looking to pad his bill.
Who forclosed on the properties? Unless your HOA did it, you should not have any financial responsibility towards the fees from the attorney.

GeraldT4
Posts: 1,022

Posted:

DonnaS - Laine was just presenting a what if scenario. If they were delinquent in $150.00 in dues it wouldn't make sense to pay $400.00 to collect them.

What the HOA should be concerned with is when a foreclosed unit's dues are going to be paid. Because until they are, the costs are divisible by the number of units in the association less those that aren't paying them.

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Gerald,
Thanks for the pointing out, must be time for new glasses here.

LaineS (Florida)
Posts: 10

Posted:

So far, none of the homes that have been foreclosed (by bank/lender)owed any dues at the time of foreclosure. Our attorney says he must do things such as "service of foreclosure complaint, review of complaint, preparation of answer, review of final summary judgment, etc." I do not know what any of those things mean. He very well may be trying to pad his bill and that is what I trying to find out. He has been served the foreclosure notice and he said that "we cannot let these things go". I may be naive by asking this but here goes, : why can't we just let these go?

I also asked a hypothetical "what if a home happened to owe dues at the time of foreclosure" because I foresee that happening to two homes in our community. Yes, they owe $150 in dues but we would rather lose the $150 than to file any costly paperwork that still doesn't guarantee that we will ever recoup our legal fees.

Thank you.

LaineS (Florida)
Posts: 10

Posted:

We have just had another foreclosure notice come through since I posted my first message. If anyone can help me, I would really appreciate it. We are too small a community to keep paying for these!!Thanks so much!

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Laine,
You need to be pleading your case to the attorney who is charging you $400.00 because he is the source of your money issue. I think that someone posted that you can file leins by yourself. look into that.

LaineS (Florida)
Posts: 10

Posted:

I now realize I did not have make myself clear. My apologies for that. Our HOA has nothing to do with the foreclosures. These are forclosures from the mortgage lenders. Our attorney says that he needs to respond to the Notices of Foreclosure each time his office is served one on our behalf. My question is, since these homes do not owe any dues, why does the HOA have to respond at all? Even if they did owe dues, are we legally required to respond? I guess I don't understand why the HOA has to be involved with a foreclosure at all.

I am sure with the way the housing market has been, this is an issue that all HOA's are dealing with. What do other HOA's do?

Thanks!

LaverneB (Florida)
Posts: 129

Posted:

We also have had forclosures, 4 in the recent year. This is a small single (216) family homes, and 1 girl office. The homeowners run the community we don't have management. So, these board members know these homeowners and it is not right in my opinion for a attorney to send the papers to the HOA. It is embarassing enough to loose a home. This has to be stopped some how...........I am trying to find out how. If anyone knows let me know

RogerB (Colorado)
Posts: 5,067

Posted:

Laine, you are correct stating "don't understand why the HOA has to be involved with a foreclosure at all." A title company needs to know all the outstanding liens against the property for which they are handling a title transfer. When an owner purchases, at least in Colorado, the Declaration places an automatic lien. Plus the HOA has an obligation to collect all delinquent funds. We do everything to collect funds due to the HOA, even after foreclosure.

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

I don't know what exactly this means other than what it says.
Our Master Deed refers to all owners having a lien on their property by virtue of signing the Association papers. We have never had to test this but I believe it means if the property is foreclosed or the title is changed that lien allows for the association to act on any unpaid bills at time of sale. We have always been able to get what was owed but we have had 1 foreclosure and we did file a lien, apart from the one that is in our Master Deed. I have no idea if this is common or not. I do know that the lawyer that helped re-writing our documents added some language that put more bite into this clause. I think he make the responsible person, "joint and several", instead of just owner. Our documents also state the procedure for collection of debts as far as time requirements.

JosephW (Michigan)
Posts: 882

Posted:

It sounds like what the attorney is doing is responding to a request for information from the entity that will be taking title after the property is foreclosed. Whenever a title is transferred, and an association is involved, the title company should be seeking a statement from the association as to the status of the property regarding assessments. Up here we call it a "Statement of Paid Dues and Assessments". Basically a letter stating that the dues are current as of a certain date. Most associations use their management company or a third party to provide this. It sounds like your attorney is doing this work for the association. This is more expensive, but someone has to certify the current postion. Please note the word "certify". Someone has to sign the document and if they're wrong, there is some liability involved.

However, you should be able to pass that cost along in some fashion. Most management companies charge a fee to produce this document, but it is generally paid by the selling owner. In this case, sinc ehte owner is being foreclosed on, ask the attorney if there is some way to charge the foreclosing entity for the documnt production, or to add it to the unit's debt, so that anyone purchasing the unit down the road would pay the amount owed.

Joe

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EllenS1 (Florida)
Posts: 1,148

Posted:

LaineS,

It sounds like in these difficult economic times that your attorney is trying to make some fast and probably unnecessary fees. I'd just ask the attorney to forward whatever papers are intended for the HOA then determine what you need to do. One doesn't need a law license to do this.

Also, check your docs..ours say re assessments "The personal obligation of delinquent assessments SHALL NOT PASS to his successors in title unless expressly assumed by them." This is why it is so important to file a lien on late assessments. When the property is sold the seller would have to pay any outstanding liens so the new owner would have clear title.

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